Lord Save Us!

Check out audio version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOMY390Dx-8

3-24-24

Hoonah-Hadley

John 12:12-16 Psalm Sunday

Call to Worship Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Daily Verse John 12:13

As we follow the seasons, seed time and harvest, winter and summer, spring time and fall, the birth, life and triumphal entry of our Lord, we hear the birds singing and the great multitude crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!”  Hosanna is a Hebrew exclamation meaning “Save, I pray.” Another translation is simply “Save Us.”  Psalm 118:25 “Save now, I pray, O Lord.” Were the gospel crowds quoting from the psalmist whose words were written long before the gates of righteousness were opened? No matter, they “heard” He was coming, “and went out to meet Him.” Have you heard He is coming again? Will you go out to greet Him? Will He find you faithful? Revelations 3:20-21 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into them and dine with them, and they with Me.” To the woodsman, hearing is critical. To the student the difference between passing or failing. For salvation, a matter of life and death.  Should we error as the multitudes did with our expectations we would be found an accessory to murder. Should we hear the voice that knocks on our door, we may enter the gates with thanksgiving. Psalm 118:19-20 “Open to me the gates of righteousness I will go through them, and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter.” The wide and narrow gate is ever before us, should I tire you with its overwhelming presence in our lives, many enter the one, few the other. 

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The question may be, will you cry out with the multitudes before the State of the Union speech, putting all your stock in the next election, or will you answer the knock on your door from the Lord and enter the gates of righteousness?  You may have seen the picture hanging on a wall in some church hallway of Christ knocking on a door, it never occurred to me until a preacher friend said that was Jesus on the outside of “the church” knocking to see if anyone would open it and let Him in. This observation lines up with the verses in Revelation chapter 3 where Christ address the church of the Laodiceans.  The conclusion of that chapter confirms for us the importance God puts on hearing, with our ears yes, but mostly with our hearts. Vs. 22 “Those who have an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  The multitudes “heard” He was coming. Why did Jesus do this?  Why did He make this grand entrance into Jerusalem? Throughout His ministry He told people that He healed, “don’t tell anybody what has happened to you.” (Mark 7:36) And then in John 7:6-8 He says twice “My time has not yet come…”  Why the triumphal entry? Matthews account gives us the answer in chapter 21:4 “All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the prophet, saying: ‘Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (Zechariah 9:9) To give you a perspective of the time frame, Zechariah, priest and prophet, spoke these things some 500 years before Christ sat on that donkey.  Zechariah’s name means, “The Lord remembers.”  And so it was that Christ remembered the prophecy concerning Himself, “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He set His face…to go to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51

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It takes the whole bible to make a whole Christian.  For those of you who are history buffs we can travel back to Genesis 49:8-11.  “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise…binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes.”  New Testament John 15:1 “I am the true vine…” The Triumphal Entry, scripture confirming scripture, thousands of years apart.  Genesis 49:8-11, as many other Old Testament verses are considered a “type and shadow” of the coming Christ. Zechariah, the priest and prophet of old finds his namesake in the gospels of the new.  The new is hidden in the old and the old is revealed in the new. Zacharias of the new, (different spelling) also priest and prophet, is the father of John the Baptist, the one sent to prepare the way for the Lord. Read his prophecy in Luke 1:67-80, it’s wonderful and telling. Vs. 76 and 77 “…For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people.”  For good measure we’ll conclude this scarlet chord with Revelations 5:5,9 “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David…and have redeemed us to God by Your blood.” Redeem=save.  As Christ mounts the colt, to enter His capital city openly, the time has come for Him to finish His great work on earth and reveal Himself as King.  He directs His disciples where they might find the colt.  The Lord knows that which He requires, where it will be found. As Jesus was about His Father’s business, one of the things we notice here is that He takes charge.  He has an appointment, He’s on the clock, a job to do, approaches it with confidence, courage and boldness.  We to have an appointment, a date, a job to do, should we not take charge, set our face like flint as Christ did?

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2 Corinthians 6:2 “…Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.”  Esther 4:14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise…from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  Of course we have, we have no other time. Salvation draws near, today is the day, dear Lord, save us!  In Matthews accounts of the Triumphal Entry, vs. 2 “…saying unto them, ‘Go into the village over against you…’” That which the Lord requires us to retrieve for Him to assist His mission, is likely nearer to us than we can imagine. “And straightaway ye shall find…” This the King James Version, others use the word “immediately”.  When the Lord sends us on an errand with eternal consequences, it will not be some wondering around mystery trip, He will speed us on our way.  Matthew vs. 7,  John vs. 14 “…loose them, and bring them…” An order from our Lord is not to be questioned, simply trust and obey.  John vs 15 “Fear not…” Fear God and you will fear nothing else. The bible is saturated with “fear not” verses, we’ll give you one. 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind.”  Matt. 21:3 “The Lord has need of them, and straightway he will send them.”  What is it that we possess that the Lord has need of? How cheerfully should we hand it over to Him?  Matt. Vs. 10 “And when He came into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, ‘Who is this?’” There is nothing that can move mankind like the coming of Christ.  “Who is this?” May we never rest until we get the answer.  John 12:12-13 “…when they heard Jesus was coming…they went out to meet Him and cried out Hosanna!’” His triumph is our triumph.

Will you meet Him? Lord Save Us! 

Amen.